The invention relates to a packaging system comprising disposable medical devices and a packaging strip comprising a plurality of chambers containing the disposable medical devices. It is also directed to an actuation means and to cartridges to be used in the packaging system.
Disposable medical devices, like lancets and test strips for quantitative chemical analysis of fluid samples such as blood, require packaging to, for example, to protect the disposable from damage prior to use and to maintain its sterility. Furthermore, single-use disposable medical devices call for a medical device package that is inexpensive and easily disposable.
A packaging strip designed to meet these demands is known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,328,184. The known packaging strip comprises a plurality of chambers arranged on top of each other containing disposable medical devices. The strip includes a continuous base sheet and a continuous cover sheet, both sheets being of transparent polyethylene film. The base sheet and cover sheet are superposed with each other, and a plurality of disposable test elements are sandwiched there between at equal intervals. The base sheet and the cover sheet are secured together around each test element by means of heat sealing, thus forming the chambers in which the test elements are arranged.
A disadvantage of the known packaging strip is that it is rather difficult and cumbersome to unpack a disposable for use. For unpacking a disposable, it is necessary to tear off a section of the packaging strip containing a chamber with the disposable. Then the cover layer has to be peeled or torn away from the base layer. This is especially difficult for persons whose manual dexterity is impaired as is often the case with people who suffer from diabetes and/or advanced age and therefore need to use medical disposables like lancets or test elements several times a day.
Furthermore, the process of unpacking a disposable from its package in the known packaging strip is rather too complicated for use of the packaging strip in an integrated device, for example a lancing device or an analyzing device. Disposables for such automated devices are usually stored in disk or drum magazines which are loaded into the automated device and contain medical disposables. In operation such handheld devices automatically remove disposables like lancets or test elements from the magazine and use the disposable, for example, a lancet, to create a puncture wound or a test element to analyze body fluid like blood.
For stock and automatic use of lancets and test elements in medical test devices, for example for testing the glucose content of a body fluid, several prior art solutions are known. Usually the lancets are provided in a magazine module and the test elements are provided on a tape, which also may be provided in a cartridge. Both modules have to be inserted into the medical analysis device, thus resulting in a relatively integrated overall system.
It is further known to provide the lancets on the same tape as the test elements. However, in order to enable a small radius of curvature and also a small packaging volume, the lancets are fixed on the tape in a direction across to the longitudinal extension of the tape. However, in case one end of the lancet is fixed on the tape, for example for transporting and disposal purposes after having used the lance, the tape has to be moved crosswise to its longitudinal direction in the moment in which the lancet is used for piercing skin. This leads to creases in the tape and thus to a reduced reliability of the system.